


Broken

by Suzie_Shooter



Category: Alex Rider - Anthony Horowitz
Genre: Alcohol, M/M, Oral Sex, Rough Sex, Smoking
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-27
Updated: 2012-02-27
Packaged: 2017-10-31 20:04:44
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,937
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/347871
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Suzie_Shooter/pseuds/Suzie_Shooter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Years later, Yassen encounters an older, emotionally scarred and angry Alex. But maybe after all, they are just what the other needs.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Broken

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by [this picture](http://pics.livejournal.com/suzie_shooter/pic/0016209b).

Alex leaned on the railing, staring out over the harbour, cigarette flicking between restless fingers. Behind and above him, the sounds of the party washed out from the first floor windows like a dirty swirl of water flushing down a drain. He was drunk, he knew it, unpleasantly so; had long since passed through the blissful stage. Now his only option was to keep drinking, through the bitter stage until he reached tantalising oblivion.

He flipped the cigarette into the lapping water and lit another, drawing the smoke in gratefully, imagining it wrapping lovingly round his lungs in a deadly embrace. The sooner the better, he thought.

He should go back in. Be charming, amusing. He could do it. And no-one would realise he despised every single one of them. Mused on what had sent him out here, the evening mist dampening his hair, tie stuffed in one pocket, shirt open at the collar. Inside, had felt like he was choking, on perfume and insincerity.

But it wasn’t that. He thought he’d glimpsed across the crowded room someone he hadn’t seen for years. Someone who made his stomach tighten in a knot of conflicting emotions, and he’d come out here – run, almost, down the steps to the waterfront – to get away from it. From _him_ – or maybe just from himself. Because he was sure – almost sure – that he’d imagined it. And didn’t want to know if he was right or wrong, or which would be worse.

“I thought it was you.” 

The quiet voice beside him almost made him spill the drink he’d forgotten he was still holding, and he looked up sharply, glared. 

Had known the answer, all along.

“And there was me thinking this was a civilised party.”

Yassen raised an eyebrow, said nothing. Leaned against the rail, apparently at ease, but studying him with a keen gaze.

Alex shifted uncomfortably under the scrutiny. “What the fuck are you doing here?” he pressed, looking away, out to sea, drawing on the cigarette, tip glowing redly in the dark.

“Just passing through. Thought I saw someone I knew. Apparently I was wrong.”

“You _never_ knew me.” It sounded bitter, even to Alex. 

“Perhaps not.” Yassen cast his eye over the nervous fingers, the cigarette, the crystal glass with its clear liquid. “And now here you are all grown up.” 

“Yeah, bully for me.” 

“And drunk.”

Alex looked at him then. “Drunk? You ain’t seen nothing yet.” 

“Not sure I’d want to see more if this is the preview.”

“And what the fuck’s it to you?”

“You’re making a spectacle of yourself.”

“Oh, really? Well, guess I’d better get rid of this then.” Alex drew his arm back and hurled the expensive crystal glass out over the water. There was a distant splash, and Alex shook drops of vodka from his sleeve. 

“Are you done?”

“Not even close.” 

Alex turned his back and started back towards the spiral steps that would take him up to the balcony, to the party.

“Leaving so soon?” Yassen’s voice floated after him, mockingly.

Alex paused. “I need a drink. I seem to have spilt this one.”

“Don’t you think you’ve had enough?” Yassen walked up behind him, carefully.

“No. Not yet.” Alex looked up, and something splintered flashed behind his eyes. “I can still feel, you see. So – another.”

“What happened, Alex?” Yassen asked softly. It was enough, though, to stop him again.

“What _happened_? What do you think happened? I grew up Yassen. No more use. Thrown out with the trash.” 

“I always thought you would have carried on working for them.”

Alex smiled, and it wasn’t a comforting sight. “Too – what was the word they used? _Damaged_. Made me unreliable, apparently. Can you believe that?” He laughed, softly, unpleasantly. “Damaged goods. They broke me, and then threw me out. All the things I saw – ” he tailed off, dropped the cigarette underfoot, ground it out with his boot.

“There are people who could help you.”

“No! You know what, there aren’t. Maybe once there was, but they’re all gone, Yassen. I had a family once. That got taken too. Piece by piece. Maybe if I’d had someone, maybe it wouldn’t have all gone tits up like this. Maybe if my uncle had still been alive, but no, someone killed him didn’t they – remind me who that was again? Oh yeah, you.” Alex was yelling now, heedless of who might hear, feeling the hysteria rising like bubbles in his blood.

“If he’d lived, you think he would have paid any more attention to you than he did before? Stop mewling.”

Alex spun, then, and slapped Yassen hard, across the face. Raised his hand for a second blow, but Yassen caught his wrist and held it in a painful grip.

“First one’s free. Second one comes back.”

Alex yanked his hand free, ran it through his hair, recovering his composure. “Fuck you.”

“No thanks.”

Alex looked startled, then grinned, slyly. “No? You sure about that? Why _did_ you follow me out here?”

Yassen shook his head, mostly at the rapid swing in Alex’s mood. “You really don’t need any more to drink.”

“No? What _do_ I need?” Alex wandered closer, until he was standing right in the Russian’s space, looking into his eyes. Alex was almost as tall as him now, Yassen realised, and tried to calculate how old he’d be. Nineteen? He was slim and well muscled, evident even under the shirt, and his apparently dissolute lifestyle hadn’t stopped him looking devastatingly attractive.

Yassen clamped down firmly on the treacherous thought, and gave Alex impassive eyes.

“How about it?” Alex stared at him challengingly, arms open invitingly. “Like what you see?”

“You look like shit.”

“Maybe you’d like to see a bit more?” Alex started unbuttoning his shirt, pulling it out of his trousers, letting it fall open to expose his chest. Yassen turned away dismissively. 

“I’m sorry Alex. I really am.” 

“ _Don’t you walk away from me!_ ” 

“I’m done here.”

Alex sprinted after him, dipped in front of him, bouncing on his toes. He felt suddenly – fizzy. Reckless. Like he could do anything. 

“What if I make it worth your while to stay?” he smirked.

“What could you possibly offer that would interest me?”

Alex stepped forward, cocky, confident. Believing, now, that this was a game, a dance. One he was going to win.

Without taking his eyes from Yassen’s face, he pulled off first one boot, then the other, before unsnapping the fastenings of his trousers, letting them fall to the ground, stepping out of them. Standing only in black socks and boxers and his unbuttoned shirt, he placed a hand in the middle of Yassen’s chest and pushed, not aggressively, but guiding.

Yassen, unblinking, let himself be moved back beneath the balcony, out of sight of the revellers above. Thinking dimly that whatever Alex was plotting he was better out of everyone’s view, but really it was all he could do not to let his gaze fall to that naked chest, those tightly muscled legs. Holding Alex’s eyes with an iron will, but there was nothing he could do about the way his body was spitefully ignoring all orders to the contrary.

It was Alex who looked down first, and Alex who grinned, reaching out with a slow deliberate movement to cup the undeniable bulge at Yassen’s crotch.

“Still reckon you don’t want me?” Alex breathed, rubbing his palm against the increasingly tented cloth.

“Just because I want something doesn’t mean I’ll take it,” Yassen spat. “Some of us have a little discipline.”

“Oh and I bet you’d just love to discipline me wouldn’t you?” Alex looked considering. “Don’t smoke, barely drink. What _do_ you do Yassen? Do you fuck?”

Yassen leaned over conspiratorially, and Alex, despite himself, moved closer to catch the whispered words.

“When I do – I don’t pay for it.”

Alex drew back sharply as if he’d been slapped, then let the hard smile mask his face again.

“No whores for Yassen? Shame. I could have made you feel good.”

“I doubt that.”

Alex narrowed his eyes and dropped to his knees, biting his lip as the rough concrete scraped his skin, co-ordination blurred by the alcohol. 

“Do you have any idea how pathetic you look?” asked Yassen conversationally.

“I’m not the one getting off on it.” Alex shot back, before lifting his hands to rub once more against the Russian’s growing erection.

Yassen swallowed, trying to steady his breathing. This was madness, had gone far enough, too far. He was no longer sure exactly who was playing with whom, and the thought made him angry.

He jerked forward with his knee, sent Alex sprawling on his back. 

All Alex did was crawl back towards him, looking up through his hair, reprovingly.

“Bad Yassen. No biscuit.” He resumed his earlier position, and this time succeeded in getting Yassen’s flies undone, fingers sliding purposefully into his underwear, stroking along the firm flesh of his cock.

“ _Alex_.” He’d meant to sound warning, but it came out too close to a plea, and Yassen bit off the words hastily.

By now, Alex had drawn out his cock and had his fingers wrapped around the shaft, was rubbing his cheek against it like a cat. 

“Stop this.”

“Make me.”

Yassen wondered if he’d imagined the plea in those words, but before he could digest this Alex had leaned in and slid his mouth over the head of his cock. 

There was a sharp pain and Yassen realised his head had hit the wall of the house behind them. Off balance, Alex took advantage, swallowing more of him, sucking like he meant it.

He was good, very good, and somehow that knowledge hurt Yassen like a distant ache, that Alex should have come to this. 

Should have come to find him before, before it was too late. Had thought he was protecting the boy by not drawing him into his world. Hadn’t realised to protect the boy he’d been risking the man.

All this flashed through his mind in a second, and then all he could think of was Alex’s mouth on him, lapping tongue, sensual lips, hollowed cheeks, Alex’s hand fondling the base of him, his balls, making him gasp for air.

Alex heard the catch of breath and smiled exultantly around him, not letting up for a second, warm, wet pressure, taking in the throbbing hardness as far as he could, tasting him salty on his tongue, swallowing around him, sucking and swallowing, over and over.

Yassen screwed his eyes shut, then opened them, staring down at the blonde head bent so industriously over him. Something broke, then, his denial, perhaps, that it was _Alex_ doing this that was making him so hard, and making it so difficult for him to stop. Alex was right, he did want this. 

The realisation made him furious, with himself, with Alex, with everything. He tangled his fingers through Alex’s hair and thrust suddenly hard into that pretty mouth.

Almost gagging, Alex pulled back a little, startled. Yassen loosened his grip, willing, still, to let Alex end this, but after a wide-eyed glance upwards Alex resumed his task, and Yassen this time let himself fall.

Thrusting over and over between Alex’s lips, fucking his mouth with violent force, holding his head in place, taking now what had been simply offered.

Alex let him, not struggling, rocking with the force of it, eyes closed, in pleasure rather than pain, and Yassen felt a ball-tightening rush of arousal, finally reaching his climax, spilling in a hot rush into Alex’s mouth, thick spurts of come trickling over his lips, sliding down his throat, making him swallow again and again.

Dazed, Alex finally slumped back on his heels, and Yassen, leaning equally weakly against the wall, noticed that Alex was now sporting a considerable erection himself.

Shook his head, disgusted with what he’d done, with what he’d let Alex manipulate him into. Tucked himself away and looked up to find Alex watching him, what might have been a look of something else being replaced by the earlier cynicism as soon as Yassen met his gaze.

“That’ll be fifty quid.” Alex stared at him, challengingly.

Yassen shook his head, wearily. “You’re not a whore, Alex.”

“Aren’t I? Not what you said earlier.” Ignoring the hand that was offered to him, Alex crawled over to slump against the wall, scrabbling in his shirt pocket for his cigarettes.

Letting the smoke drift upwards towards the oblivious partygoers, he closed his eyes, letting the taste of nicotine mingle with the taste of Yassen in his mouth, and savouring it.

Abruptly, he felt the cigarette snatched from between his lips, and opened his eyes in time to see Yassen throw it into a nearby planter. 

“You still here?” he asked, deciding that ignoring the action would irritate Yassen more than acknowledging it.

“I’m hardly going to leave you in this state, am I?”

“No?” Alex closed his eyes again. “I’m not your problem Yassen.”

“So, what? I leave you to drink yourself to death? To get yourself screwed and stabbed in some alleyway? Get up Alex. That’s an order.”

“Go away.”

“Now!”

Rolling his eyes, Alex nevertheless scrambled, groaning to his feet. He stood there, feeling abruptly dizzy, and wondering if he was going to throw up. _Classy, Alex. Really classy._ He smiled vaguely, and almost fell sideways. 

Making a hasty grab for him, Yassen gave a grunt of exasperation, and picked him up, slinging him over one shoulder and snatching up the boots and trousers strewn on the ground.

“If you’re sick on me, I’ll throw you in the harbour,” he threatened in a low growl, and Alex, upside down, giggled drunkenly from his position halfway down Yassen’s back.

“Where are we going?” he demanded after a second, as he was distracted from his hazy contemplation of Yassen’s arse by the realisation they weren’t returning to the house they’d come out of.

“My room,” replied Yassen, shortly. “I’m in a hotel down here.” He strode down the waterfront carrying Alex’s not inconsiderable weight as if he were no heavier than a coat.

“Aw, wouldn’t they let you stay at the big house?” Alex jibed. “Maybe we should go to my room, it was upstairs.”

“I prefer something a little more discreet,” muttered Yassen, looking round for any CCTV cameras that might pick up the marginally suspicious image of a man carrying someone over his shoulder. Satisfied, he slipped into the parking garage entrance and pressed the lift call button.

“Taking me in the back way eh?” Alex nodded, then snorted with laughter. “How fitting.”

The lift doors slid open with a chime, and Yassen dropped Alex unceremoniously to the floor with a satisfied smirk as he yelped in pain. “Would you prefer I carried you through reception like this?”

Alex sat back against the wall and looked up at him, insolently.

“Are you going to fuck me? Very reasonable rates.”

“I hardly think so. You need to sober up.”

“No? I’d promise not to hate you in the morning, but well, I hate you anyway. So you’ve got nothing to lose really have you?”

Yassen ignored him, watching the floor indicator instead, and only looking down when they arrived with a jolt. “Can you walk, or do I need to drag you down the hallway?”

“Depends. Can I have my trousers back?”

Yassen realised with a start of disgust that they were still draped over his shoulder and threw them down viciously in Alex’s face. He stepped out of the lift, grateful that the corridor was deserted due to the late hour. Marched the short distance to his door, unlocking it swiftly, wondering if Alex would follow or take the chance to desert.

A presence at his elbow confirmed what he’d expected, and he looked round to find Alex, bare legged, carrying his trousers and boots in one hand. Shook his head despairingly and ushered Alex into the bedroom.

Once inside, Alex dropped his burden carelessly on the carpet, seemingly losing interest. Wandered over to the window, looked out at the lights in the bay. Sensed movement behind him and looked up, catching Yassen’s reflection in the glass.

Deliberately, without turning round, shrugged the open shirt from his shoulders and let it fall to the floor. Kicked up one foot then the other, pulling off his socks. 

“Do you want to take off the rest, or should I carry on?” he murmured, eyes on Yassen’s in the dark glass. 

“What you choose to do is no concern of mine.”

Alex turned, leaned back against the windowsill. “Then why are you still watching?”

With no adequate answer, Yassen could only stand and look on as Alex hooked his thumbs into the waistband of his boxers, inching them down over his hips, exposing a straining erection. He wriggled slightly, and they fell to his ankles. Stepping out of them brought him one step closer to Yassen, and the Russian fought the urge to take a step back. It was ridiculous, he reflected, how much the wretched boy discomfited him. He’d started out feeling sorry for him, for the boy he had been. But whatever had happened to him, he wasn’t a child any longer, and what Yassen was feeling right now was so far from protectiveness that it almost sickened him.

Alex was staring at him, eyes holding anger, and pain, and need, all of them too, too familiar. But there was still, on the edges, a flicker of something else. Insecurity? Yassen realised with a jolt of clarity that Alex was playing a part. Whether he knew he was, was another matter.

How easy would it be, he wondered, to force that mask to slip. There’d be more than one way of doing it. Although what would be left if he did – how fragile was this arrogant shell, he wondered, and realised he’d taken a step forward without thinking.

A flicker of uncertainly passed across Alex’s face, quickly suppressed, to be replaced with defiance. He tilted his chin up and took the final step to close the gap. 

“You want me don’t you?” A note of triumph, mixed with disgust. “You’re like all the rest.”

“Did you expect some sort of salvation Alex? Because if there’s one thing I’m fairly sure of, it’s that there isn’t any. For any of us.” Yassen pushed him, roughly so that he sprawled backwards on the bed in shock. Yassen followed him down, too fast for him to roll out of the way, straddling his legs and pinning him to the covers. 

“Do you want me to fuck you Alex? Do you?” he hissed, mouth to Alex’s ear. “Because I can promise you, I won’t be gentle. So I suggest you are _very_ careful what you ask for.”

Before Alex could do more than draw a shocked breath Yassen had rolled off him again, composure locked in place, for all the world as if they’d merely been holding a civilised conversation. It was his turn to stand and stare out of the darkened window, waiting for Alex to make his choice. The brief sensation of Alex’s hot, naked body beneath him had been enough to make him hard again, and he ached with the need to touch him, to mark him, to fuck him. But his control was stronger than Alex’s. He’d had, after all, a lot longer to perfect it.

The hand in the small of his back was almost enough to make him jump. Almost. 

He turned, and there was Alex, looking somehow less cocky, but no less defiant. And no less naked. 

His eyes had dropped to Alex’s cock before he could stop himself, sticking up proudly between his legs, and felt his own erection throb in the confines of his trousers.

Alex met his eyes, nodded, slowly. 

“You want it? You take it.” he said softly.

“You’re a stupid boy, Alex,” Yassen breathed, threading the fingers of one hand into the tousled blonde hair and drawing Alex’s head back, exposing his throat, running the fingers of his other hand down it, watching Alex swallow beneath the touch.

“And I’m betting you’re just itching to teach me the error of my ways, right?”

With an abrupt jerk Yassen let go of Alex’s hair and in the same movement backhanded him across the face.

“You’ll keep a civil tongue in your head Alex. Or you’ll lose it.”

Holding a hand to his smarting cheek, Alex scowled in resentment. “Is that your idea of foreplay?”

“Oh, you’re about to find out what that is,” Yassen promised, and something in his cold stare made some of the confidence leak out of Alex’s mutinous glare.

After a second’s consideration, Yassen’s hands moved to the buttons of his own shirt, and unhurriedly unfastened it. Alex watched, for once silent, as Yassen proceeded to remove the rest of his clothes, dropping them on a chair, before turning back to Alex. Both naked now, Yassen padded forward, driving Alex back before him, until his knees caught on the edge of the bed and he found himself once more on his back.

Sprawled on the covers, he felt his breath coming faster as Yassen lowered himself down over him. There was something in the slow deliberateness of his movements that screamed predator, and Alex had a brief flash of fear. But it was chased out by breathless arousal, as Yassen’s hard cock came into contact with his own for the first time, and Alex threw his head back and gasped.

“Like that do you?” Yassen rubbed, slowly, against the length of him, and Alex struggled to draw the shield of his anger around him, but it was becoming increasingly difficult.

Yassen leaned further over, to whisper in his ear. “You’re a whore Alex. A drunken little whore.”

“Fuck you,” Alex choked, feeling this wasn’t the world’s most eloquent put down, but it was about all he could manage with Yassen’s hands gripping his wrists like steel cuffs and the Russian’s hardness sliding against his own like a silky threat of violence.

Yassen just smiled cruelly, and shifted his position, bringing a knee up between Alex’s thighs, forcing them apart. He released one of Alex’s wrists to trail his fingers down Alex’s exposed chest, halfway down clenching his fingers to draw sharp nails across the skin. Alex jumped as if he’d had an electric shock, eyes dark and wide, panting hard, unable to even swear now, the bruising grip on his arm, the bright red pain of the nails against his skin making him dizzy with sensation.

Yassen’s whole body was covering him now, a heavy weight forcing the air from his lungs, and lips were pressed against his throat, teeth biting, nipping at his skin as Yassen worked his way down from jaw to collarbone, enjoying the way Alex twitched and squirmed beneath him.

“Fuck,” Alex breathed, but this time it was closer to incoherent arousal than anger.

Yassen’s teeth grazed his chest, his nipples, forcing a groan out of Alex’s mouth, helpless beneath the onslaught of mouth and fingers. But when Alex was starting to think he could be only moments from coming, Yassen sat up, rolling off him and Alex had given a wordless moan of complaint before he could stop himself. 

He could have bitten his tongue off, but Yassen merely gave a low laugh, and reached for his trousers. Before Alex could wonder, he’d come back to sit beside him, a condom between his fingers.

Alex’s mouth went dry. “Oh God,” he whispered, unable to tear his eyes away from Yassen as he carefully rolled it over his rigid cock, unhurried, precise, silent. When he was satisfied, only then did he look up and accept Alex’s gaze.

“Say something,” Alex pleaded in a hoarse croak, as Yassen rolled him onto his front, straddling him once more, letting his warm, thick cock slide between Alex’s thighs. 

Obligingly, he leaned forward, found Alex’s ear. Whispered, lovingly, into it.

“I’m going to hurt you, Alex.”

Alex let out the breath he hadn’t realised he was holding, letting his face fall into the pillow. Yassen, still just close enough to catch the single murmured word.

“ _Yes._ ”

Yassen’s hands stroked slowly down Alex’s sides, tracing the line of his hips, ghosting over the curve of his buttocks. Then with no more warning, not giving Alex any time to think about it, he was spreading him wide and thrusting roughly into him, one long smooth movement that buried his cock in Alex’s tight body.

Alex cried out, muffled by the pillow, hands scrabbling for purchase, fingers curling into the fabric, anything to brace himself against the sudden shock of pain as he was taken with such merciless force.

Yassen was moving now, slamming into him, over and over, fingers gripping his hips bruisingly hard, holding him down as he pounded against Alex’s body. 

Half-stifled and entirely helpless, Alex could only let Yassen take everything he wanted. The feeling of him moving inside his spasming body, fucking him as roughly as he’d ever been taken, pinning and penetrating was insanely intense, and it _hurt_ with a wild singing pain that made his head spin, but at the same time it seemed everything he’d ever wanted, and his cock throbbed with his pounding heartbeat, and he felt Yassen inside him, the heat and the pulse of him, and it felt good, so good, and he couldn’t hold on.

Alex came so suddenly he even surprised himself, a helpless release that made him shudder under Yassen’s body with a force and climax that left him gasping and weak limbed.

Yassen rode the waves of Alex’s orgasm, felt him clench and shake, felt every tremor make its way up through his cock, and soon he too was coming hard, arms tight round Alex’s waist, holding him up against him, the better to fuck him deeper than ever.

They rolled apart, breathing heavily. Yassen peeled off the condom and flicked it at the wastepaper bin. 

Alex followed the movement with his eyes. 

“Missed.”

Yassen gave a short laugh, collapsing back against the pillows and looking over at Alex. He gazed back, and for a moment they just stared at each other. Both felt the earlier antagonism had somehow faded, that what they’d just done had brought them closer somehow: not emotionally, but in terms of equals. What Yassen had dealt, Alex had taken. That counted for a lot. To both of them.

They lay next to each other, not speaking, recovering their breath, and composure.

“I suppose I should go,” Alex sighed eventually, rolling onto his back and staring blindly at the ceiling. Yassen propped himself up on one elbow, and stroked a hand over Alex’s stomach.

“How much for the whole night?” he asked, softly.

Alex looked startled, then saw the teasing in his eyes. 

“I’m not a whore, Yassen,” he said quietly

“I know,” Yassen breathed, pulling Alex back into his arms and finally kissing him gently on the mouth, the first time he’d done so. After stiffening briefly, Alex yielded to the touch of his lips, melting into the kiss with something like wary wonder.

The kiss lasted a long time, slow and warm where before there had been friction and fire. Afterwards they lay wrapped in each other’s arms, taking comfort without needing to ask for it.

Sleepily, Alex’s thoughts were still with the future. 

“So what happens now?”

“Now? I think you should come with me.”

“What?” Alex sat up, staring at him. “Just like that? I come with you and somehow everything’s all right?”

Yassen sighed. “I’m not going to watch you throw your life away Alex.”

“It’s not yours to give a toss about.”

“Fine. Have it your own way.” Yassen held up his hands in irritated resignation and they glared at each other. Eventually, Yassen groaned in surrender and lay back, holding out one arm. Alex reluctantly settled back into the Russian’s embrace, gradually relaxing against him until they were as closely entwined as a moment before.

“I’m sorry,” murmured Yassen, after another sleepy silence.

Alex looked surprised. “What for?” 

“Everything.”

Alex turned in his arms, so he was resting against the Russian’s chest, trailed his fingers across the skin. “That kind’ve implies everything’s your fault. It’s not your fault Yassen.”

“I didn’t help.”

“So, what? You’re going to try and fix me now because you feel guilty, is that it?”

Yassen shook his head, regretfully.

“I don’t think I ever fixed anyone in my life, Alex. I’m not saying life with me would be any better for you than – ” He sighed. “Maybe it’s not you that needs fixing.”

After a second’s silence, Alex looked up, consideringly. “I’m not easy to live with.”

“You think I am? I’d expect you to do as I say, Alex.”

“As long as you don’t get too mad when I don’t.”

Yassen blinked. “You’ll come with me?”

Alex nodded, wordlessly. Half disbelieving, they both laughed, quietly, in sudden hope. The kiss that followed was breathless and fierce, Alex losing his wariness in a new eagerness for Yassen’s touch.

As they settled back more comfortably, Alex smiled. “Watch out world, eh?” 

Yassen groaned. “Of all the monumentally bad ideas, this – us – has got to be one of the worst.”

“Changing your mind already?”

“Never.” His arm tightened around Alex’s shoulders possessively, and Alex let his head rest against Yassen’s chest.

“Bad idea, huh?”

“Terrible.”

“Probably won’t last a week.”

“Probably not.”

Alex looked up, smiling, and Yassen kissed him. 

“Be a good week though.”

\--


End file.
